Sugar Secrets…& Dramas

by Mel Sparke

  In the past, she might have thought that guy was vaguely cute - definitely worthy of a quick snog in aid of the kissing competition - and yet here she was taking refuge in the toilets.

  Of course, deep down, she knew what was up. Every time he’d opened his mouth to tell her some story or other, she only found herself imagining Owen’s lovely, honest, funny face looking back at her. Much as she’d tried, she couldn’t get Anna’s brother out of her head.

  She had been upset at the mix up over his Christmas plans, and even though they had since talked and Sonja had realised how the mix-up had occurred, she was still a bit annoyed that he had chosen to spend Christmas with his mother rather than with her.

  And who knows what he got up to last night? she fretted to herself, thinking of the work party he’d told her he was going to.

  Deep down, she knew that Owen wouldn’t run off with anyone else, but the distance between them, and the emotion surrounding this time of year, was playing games with her mind.

  She put on her lipstick and decided to head back to the bar, snaffle a Christmas kiss quickly to get her score up, then go and find Cat to see how she was getting on with her head count.

  When it came to the crunch though, Sonja couldn’t go through with it.

  She slipped back out of the toilets and made her way to the other side of the club, as far away from the bar as she could get.

  Having lost sight of the others, Kerry, Joe and Maya found themselves standing by the edge of the dance floor watching the smoochers giving it loads in front of them. In true Christmas spirit the DJ had decided now was the time to slow things down and the dance area was packed with Christmas snoggers in the muted glow of golden and rose-tinted lighting.

  Kerry looked on, her heart heavy with disappointment. In the past, at times like this -and before OIlie came on the scene - she would have hidden in the toilets while the slowies were on. Now she and OIlie were an item though, Kerry loved to smooch with him. Pathetic as it might sound, it felt as if she was making up for all those years when she’d sat this part of the night out.

  She carried on watching - spotting Cat with the Dutch boy, Marc, and Gabrielle inevitably in Matt’s arms - feeling as miserable as she’d ever been on Christmas Eve.

  Suddenly, she felt someone put their arms around her waist and kiss her lightly on her bare shoulder. Kerry spun round, horrified that a guy dared do that to her.

  As she saw who it was, the look of fury on her face melted into one of complete adoration.

  “OIlie!” she exclaimed, her smile lighting up her face and everything else within a two-mile radius.

  “Hello, Kez,” he replied. “Happy Christmas.”

  He kissed her again, only this time it was a proper, lingering kiss that left her catching her breath.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” Kerry said when they’d finally broken away from each other. “I didn’t think you’d make it.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed seeing you tonight for anything,” Ollie smiled. “And it looks like I timed it just right. Do you want to dance?”

  Kerry nodded. They made their way to the dance floor and wrapped themselves around each other, lost in the music and their love.

  Joe looked on wistfully as Kerry and Ollie smooched. He wondered if he would ever find someone to fall in love with, someone who had as much love to give to him as he had them…

  “What are you thinking about, Joe?” Maya asked, though she was pretty sure what the answer was by the expression on his face and the direction he was gazing in.

  Joe turned round and managed a smile.

  “I was just thinking… Do you want to dance?”

  “I’d love to, Joe,” Maya answered, giving his hand a squeeze.

  Sonja was sitting on her own in the gloomiest part of the club. She’d been there for the last twenty minutes, gazing out at the throng of flirting people and thanking her lucky stars that she’d come to her senses. It was as if she’d been trying to ‘get’ at Owen, even though it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t be with her.

  In the course of the last five minutes she’d been joined by Matt, who’d quickly waved the others over to the roomy table.

  “So tell me again what happened to Gabrielle?” Sonja asked Matt, having only caught the tail end of what he was saying as Maya and Joe had shuffled in to join them.

  “She had a row with her dad today over what time she could stay out until,” he explained, “and instead of him letting me take her home at the end of the night, he gave her a twelve o’clock curfew.”

  “Oh, poor Matt, I bet you were gutted,” sympathised Sonja.

  “Yep, you could say that. I tell you, he was waiting outside the club in his car when I took her outside at five to. She wouldn’t even speak to him when she got in the back seat.”

  “I bet you felt like going home yourself after that, didn’t you?” Sonja asked.

  “I did think about it. But then I thought, what the hell, it’s Christmas Eve. And I could hear the beer monster calling me from the bar, so I came back in.”

  Grinning, he brandished the bottle he was holding and took another slurp.

  “So how did the snogathon go?” Anna asked Sonja.

  Sonja screwed her face up. “It didn’t, or at least not where I’m concerned.”

  “What happened, did you lose your bottle?” Matt chuckled into his beer.

  “No, it was just that I kept thinking about Owen and I couldn’t go through with it,” Sonja replied, looking at Anna pointedly.

  Anna gave her a warm smile in return.

  “So how did Cat get on?” Matt wondered, stretching his neck up and gazing around for their missing friend. “Don’t suppose she found a Prince Charming in here tonight, but it looked to me like there were plenty of frogs about!”

  “Oh, I know what went on with her!” Anna said, eyes wide. “I saw her on my way back from the toilets. She was helping Rudi get his friend Marc outside for some fresh air, ‘cause he’d drunk too much. She said she was really annoyed because she’d decided Marc was pretty cute and she was just going to go after him, instead of bothering with the competition…”

  “But let me guess - he got sick before she could snog him?” giggled Sonja, happy to have something to laugh about again.

  “Or he got sick because she tried to snog him,” Matt snorted, remembering Marc’s pasty-white face when he’d glanced across the dance floor during the slowie and seen Cat in his arms.

  “Oooh, don’t remind me,” grimaced Maya. “His mate Rudi pounced on me earlier and I’m sure Cat put him up to it - told the poor lad I fancied him or something.”

  “Hang on, though,” Sonja said, pointing a finger at Maya. “If I didn’t get a snog and Cat didn’t get a snog—”

  “I kissed Kerry!” Ollie interrupted.

  “You two don’t count, or Matt and Gabrielle. This is a singles only thing,” Sonja corrected him. “No, it looks to me like the winner of the snogathon is… Maya Joshi!”

  Maya looked horrified.

  “I., but… uh…” she spluttered.

  “What? Weren’t you kissing him then?” Sonja carried on, enjoying the fact that she was embarrassing the normally unflappable Maya.

  “But he was trying to kiss me,” Maya protested. “It was all one-sided!”

  “Doesn’t matter!” trumpeted Matt, laughing. “It happened, and in the face of no other competition whatsoever, in my book that makes you the winner!”

  As the rest of the gang fell about in fits of laughter for the next ten minutes, the look of disgust on Maya’s face said it all. She was not impressed.

  CHAPTER 20

  CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

  Anna got up to change the channel yet again and still found nothing she wanted to watch among the kiddie films and endless Christmas episode sitcom reruns. She wished for the hundredth time that Nick had provided the flat with a TV that was modern enough to have a remote.

  So it was Christmas Day, but so far, Anna had spent
the morning much like any other day off from work. Got up, had a bath, washed her hair, put the TV on, made some toast, read a book, generally lounged around.

  The only difference was that she had two presents to open, which had come through the post the day before. One was a. £30 book voucher from Owen (“Buy one of those arty, New-Agey books you like so much!” he’d written on the card. “You know me - I’ll just get the wrong one!”); the other was a gift basket of Body Shop smellies from her mother.

  Nice, Anna thought, but not very imaginative. It’s what people buy each other when they don’t know someone’s tastes that well.

  She had to laugh - it was practically the same basket she’d sent to her mother, which spoke volumes about their relationship.

  When she rang to thank them both, there was no one at home. Anna glanced at her watch -eleven o’clock - and guessed they might have gone to church: it’s what they used to do when she was living at home. For some reason it made her feel slightly depressed.

  Anna flopped back on to the sofa and toyed with the idea of putting a tape on, but in the mood she was in at the moment, she felt that every track she listened too might make her cry -even the loudest, happiest ones.

  She leapt at the sound of the door buzzer, sending Pringles gift basket of Body of the tube that lay by her side.

  “Emergency! “ Ollie grinned, holding two crash helmets in his hands.

  Anna gripped the doorknob and tried to work out what was happening.

  “The pub’s mobbed and we need more hands on deck. It’s an emergency. Can you help? Please?”

  “I - I-” Anna spluttered for a second.

  Ollie looked at her pleadingly, like some cute Andrex puppy.

  She knew she didn’t have a choice and she knew too that OIlie had set this up.

  “Wait a second,” she smiled. “I’ll get my coat…”

  “More Christmas pudding?” Ollie’s mum asked Anna. “Come on - you deserve it, after helping out so much earlier!”

  “No, honestly, I’m full,” she thanked her, feeling stuffed full of food and totally spoiled. “I was just glad to help.”

  “And thank you not just for helping downstairs, but for keeping us from missing Natasha too much,” Stuart Stanton smiled warmly at her.

  She blushed at Ollie’s dad’s words, but felt it was time to leave. Anna’d had a brilliant time running around helping out - bumbling around cleaning glasses and even trying to learn to serve pints, which OIlie at only seventeen was still not legally allowed to do.

  She more than appreciated their kind invite to stay for Christmas dinner when the pub closed for the afternoon. But now Anna felt she should let the Stantons relax and enjoy some time to themselves.

  “I’d better go - I’ve got to phone my family,” she explained. “But let me help you clear up first…”

  “No, that’s my job!” said Ollie, whose paper hat was tilted over at a rakish angle. “But stay and put your feet up, why don’t you? Phone your folks later.”

  Anna shook her head, then stretching over, she gave Ollie a little kiss on the cheek and straightened his paper hat for him.

  The chilly air hit her as she walked back through the park towards home. Her face felt warm and glowing and she couldn’t help but smile.

  It’s amazing how different I felt just a few hours ago, she realised, aware of how phenomenally her mood had changed. All thanks to Ollie.

  She strolled merrily on, humming a few of the corny Christmas hits which had been blasting through the pub all afternoon. Then it began to snow, which made Anna laugh out loud, and soon she was running breathlessly through the park, arms outstretched, her tongue sticking out to try and catch the snowflakes gently falling around her.

  She only stopped when she realised there was someone sitting on a park bench close by. In the beam of the old-fashioned lamp behind it, she suddenly saw it was Matt, sitting there all alone, oblivious to her presence, lost deep in thought.

  Anna walked up and sat down next to him.

  “Hi, Matt,” she said hesitantly, unsure whether he’d appreciate the interruption.

  He looked up.

  “Oh, hi, Anna,” he replied casually, “I didn’t hear you coming.”

  “I’m surprised,” she chuckled, “considering all the noise I was making. Happy Christmas by the way.”

  “Oh… yeah, of course. Happy Christmas,” he replied. “I nearly forgot.”

  “So what brings you here on Christmas Day?” asked Anna.

  “Dunno really. I fancied a walk after lunch and kind of ended up here, I guess.”

  “No parties at your place then?”

  “Far from it,” Matt scoffed. “Me and Dad shared a microwaved turkey dinner, then he left to go to some girlfriend’s for the afternoon.”

  “And no Gabrielle?”

  “Nah. She’s doing the family thing. I wasn’t invited. To be honest,” he added, a note of sadness in his voice, “I don’t think they approve of me. Still, I’ll see her tomorrow - that’s when we’ll swap presents, sort of make another Christmas Day of it.”

  Anna felt an instant empathy with Matt. She also felt sorry for him and guilty that she hadn’t been aware of his situation until now. She doubted anyone in the gang had thought to ask him what sort of Christmas he’d be having, least of all Anna who figured she’d be the only one spending it alone.

  Matt was the sort of guy who always seemed to be doing things, who had loads of mates, a great social life, not the kind you would ever think could be lonely. But Anna could see it now, and she bet that sometimes he was almost as lonely as she was.

  “So are you planning on sitting here in the snow for the rest of the evening?” Anna said lightly.

  Matt chuckled. “Maybe not. I guess I’ll go home, crack open a few beers and watch some telly.” He shrugged and gave her a half smile that he probably thought looked engaging but which Anna thought was pitiful.

  “Why don’t you come back to mine?” she found herself suggesting. “I’ve got two crackers left over from the café. We could pull them, read rotten jokes out loud and then argue over which crappy film to watch.”

  “Sure, Anna, I’d like that.” Matt looked at her intently, then gave her a broad grin.

  Standing up, Anna held out her hand for him to take. They both giggled as she helped pull him to his feet and they set off through the snow-encrusted park.

  It felt like the most natural thing in the world as they strolled hand in hand towards the park gate, two lonely souls slowly lost in a flurry of white flakes…

  “C’mere, gorgeous!” said a voice in his ear and his head was caught in an vice-like armlock. “Mmmmmmm-wah!”

  Releasing her grip on Joe, Catrina Osgood ruffled his hair carelessly and disappeared into the crowds of party-goers in search of another face to suction.

  Joe blushed furiously, glad of the muted lighting in the cavernous town hall. Cat might not have thought anything of her overenthusiastic slobber (just one of many she’d be dishing out), but it had suddenly reminded Joe of his recent bout of madness - when he’d thought for ail of five minutes that he actually fancied Catrina…

  But this New Year’s Eve, it seemed that it wasn’t only Joe who was feeling awkward as the party poppers erupted all around him, sending streamers flying into the air.

  Wonder what’s going on there? he asked himself, his eyes settling on a strange encounter between Matt and Anna.

  Matt, with one arm still circled round his girlfriend Gabrielle Adjani’s waist, had turned around with a grin on his face, obviously ready to bellow a Happy New Year at whoever was close by. At that same second, Anna - fresh from giving her brother Owen a hug - turned to do the same.

  They were so close to each other, they could have kissed without taking a step nearer, but instead of reaching out instinctively and doing just that, Joe noticed that they both faltered, smiles slipping, before Anna moved forward stiffly and gave Matt a brief, self-conscious peck on the cheek.

 
Almost immediately, they swung their attention away from one another, casting desperate glances around for someone else to fix on. Or so it appeared to Joe, locked in his own little world of self-consciousness just a few feet away.

  “Joe!” smiled Maya Joshi, bringing him back to earth. “I was just saying to the others that we should dip out and get some fresh air - it’s too hot and mad in here!”

  “Uh, OK,” agreed Joe dubiously.

  He certainly wasn’t feeling at his most relaxed; his two kisses had left him pretty disconcerted (for different reasons) but he hadn’t expected to be leaving the party quite so soon.

  Maya spotted the confusion in his face and tried to spell things out a little more clearly.

  “I don’t mean we should go home, Joe. It’s just that Matt says the door to the fire escape behind the DJ booth is open,” she explained, motioning towards the black curtain behind the speakers and console where the music was blasting out. “We can sneak away for a bit - sit on the fire escape and, y’know, just hang out, all of us.”

  “Great idea,” he grinned at her.

  “Well, come on - help me round up the troops…” she grinned back, linking her arm into his.

  “Anna says that if you look up at the sky just after midnight at New Year, it’ll tell you what kind of year you’re going to have,” said Maya, tossing her shiny dark hair back and staring up into the deep, star-spangled indigo night above them.

  “Pity she’s not here to interpret it then, isn’t it?” murmured Joe, squinting upwards.

  “She’ll be here - she was trying to track down Owen and Sonja, remember?”

  Joe nodded wordlessly. The others had all promised faithfully that they’d follow Maya and Joe out on to the fire escape - as soon as they’d finished talking to people/gone to the loo/got another round of drinks in or (in Cat’s case) had snogged any male between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. (And there were a few hundred of those in the building for her to work her way around.)

  “So what do you think the sky’s trying to tell us?” Joe asked his friend, aware of her shivering slightly as she sat next to him on the open metal staircase.